


It's in the Drift

by nanuk_dain



Series: Drift Compatible [5]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Movie, Stacker and Herc Drift together, Team Hot Dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-10-20
Packaged: 2018-02-21 23:11:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2485682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a drift to test a new Jaeger, Herc learns something about Stacker Pentecost that completely throws him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's in the Drift

**Author's Note:**

> We're getting close! For those of you who asked if I was taking our boys into the mature zone, I'll let you know that we're getting there soon ^___^ (btw, just to give you an idea, there are about 29.000 words in my collected files for this series, so there are more than 11.000 words still coming. And that doesn't include all the stuff I'm going to write within the next few days XD)
> 
> Let me know what you think? Make me a happy wee author? Get cookies? *holds out a plate with homemade chocolate chip cookies*

_PPDC Proving Ground, Kodiak Island, Alaska, February 2016_

 

It hits him - Herc wants to say square in the face, but that's actually not what the Drift feels like. It's more like it surrounds him, as if Stacker's memories and feeling wrap around him like a blanket.

And right there, hidden in all those impressions, he catches this warm, affectionate feeling coming from Stacker that is directed at _him_. It leaves him breathless, leaves him feeling safe and cared for and like he belongs - and then it's gone, replaced by other memories, other feelings that have nothing to do with Herc. There's Mako, Luna, Tamsin, Stacker's dad... There's so much and this little flash of feelings was just a quick impression, so Herc forgets about it before the neural handshake is even fully engaged. 

100%, LOCCENT lets them know. At their first trial Caitlin Lightcap called them a perfect match, him and Stacker. She said it's something she had observed only very few times. The Kaidonovskys from Russia are one, too, she explained. Able to hold a flawless, incredibly strong neural handshake for a very long time. In sync even without being linked in the drift. Compatible inside and outside of the Conn-Pod. Not every pilot even has a perfect match, she said, and it's not necessary to find that person to be able to pilot a Jaeger. It's more like a bonus.

The scientists are still trying to figure out how the Pons works exactly, looking for ways to make the drift go smoother. And during the testing for the development of the new Jaegers, and more specifically the Pons, Caitlin needs all the test pilots she can get to drift together, so Herc agrees to join her testing programme after he graduates. The scientists find out that not everybody can enter the Pons with everybody - there is a connection, a common ground necessary that the scientists decided to call 'drift compatibility'. They also find out that Herc can drift with a lot of people, and they call him an almost universally drift compatible pilot. Stacker is a close second. 

So it's no surprise that Herc and Stacker never had any problems drifting together. On top of their universal compatibility, they're each other's perfect match. Since the other Rangers aren't universally compatible, though, Stacker and him don't pilot on combat missions together. Stacker was paired with Tamsin before Herc even joined the academy, and they share a very strong bond. Herc pilots with Scott because they work well enough together, no matter that their personalities are so different.

It still never feels as good as the drift he shares with Stacker when they're testing systems for Caitlin. Herc loves those test runs, even if they can be rather painful sometimes when things don't work properly. 

This isn't one of those days, though. For once everything goes according to plan. Herc and Stacker follow Caitlin's requests and move whatever part of the skeleton Jaeger she has in her lab, in whatever way she asks them to. They do the mental exercises she explains to them and let her record their brain waves so that she can work out any bugs in the connection between the pilots themselves as well as between the Jaeger and its pilots. The tests usually go on for several hours, and afterwards Herc and Stacker go to the mess to get some food because they're famished. It's harder work to pilot a Jaeger than it looks, Herc learns early on. 

It was Stacker who came up with a surprisingly reliable way to find out if two Rangers are drift compatible: Have them fight and see how they work _together_ , not _against_ each other. Herc has an inkling that the idea came from the fight between them, back in Afghanistan, when Kaiju belonged firmly in the realm of horror movies and Jaegers were a geek's orgasmic fantasy. Herc has never shared such an intense bond with anybody else during a fight, not before and not after his encounter with Stacker, and it's one of those moments in life he will never forget. Through the drift he knows that Stacker remembers it too.

It's early evening when Herc gets back to the quarters that he shares with Scott and Chuck - who has disappeared again. Herc is not surprised. The kid is a handful, and being a gawky, Jaeger-obsessed teenager has only made it worse. Herc has a good idea where he might be and heads off to the Jaeger bay. It doesn't take very long to find him. Chuck is helping out Maggie, a Canadian J-Tech who allows him to hang around as long as he listens to her and doesn't touch anything without permission. Surprisingly Chuck follows those rules without complaint, probably because he knows that she will not let him join her again if he doesn't.

Herc collects his runaway son to get him into the mess for dinner. He winks at Maggie and mouths a 'Thank you' to her behind Chuck's back before they leave, and she just grins. She likes Chuck, she told Herc once, because he's a lot like her younger brother. Later Herc finds out that her brother was killed in the Vancouver Kaiju attack just a few months ago.

The rest of the evening is a struggle between getting Chuck to do his homework, fending off Scott's annoying attempts to get Herc to go out to some bar, and finishing the paperwork that's accumulated on his desk. Herc is exhausted when he finally gets to bed around midnight. 

It's only then, when Herc lies in his bunk listening to Scott snore on the other side of the room, just when he's about to fall asleep, that he remembers the flash of feelings he got from Stacker during their drift that morning. Suddenly it's back, just in that moment before sleep claims him - that feeling of warmth and comfort and heat and passion and desire... Herc snaps awake, panting, jerking upright in his bed. His eyes are wide open, staring at the wall at the end of his bunk without actually seeing anything, and suddenly he just _knows_.

Stacker Pentecost is in love with him. Has been for a very long time.

It leaves Herc breathless. He is certain that Stacker never wanted him to see that in the drift. He's not that kind of guy, he would never take advantage of something as personal as the drift. No, he would address the matter directly if he wanted Herc to know. It has slipped, and that makes it even worse - now Herc feels guilty, as if he's peeked into something he has no right to see. 

How is he supposed to react? Does Stacker even know that his feelings bled through the drift? Maybe Herc should just talk to Stacker, tell him that he saw it. But that would be awkward, because Herc doesn't know where to go from that. There are obvious questions he needs to answer for himself before he can even think of talking to Stacker. Like, does he return the feeling or not? Does he want to act on it? Does he want to forget the entire thing? Does he find Stacker attractive?

Well, that's an easy one. Of course he does, he's not blind. Touching Stacks - or Stacks touching him - is certainly something he wouldn't be opposed to. He noticed Stacker already back in Afghanistan, but Herc was happily married with child, so anything other than looking wasn't even an option. They haven't seen much of each other since Angela's death, although they kept up contact, and Herc will never forget what Stacker did for him back then. It was an act of friendship that probably saved Herc from losing it altogether, and he knows that. Stacker gave him the chance to break down, let out the first, most intense wave of grief, and trust that there was somebody to hold him together throughout it. There aren't many people Herc would have trusted with that. Only Angie, and she couldn't do it anymore.

So, does he trust Stacker? Yes, unconditionally, and he has for years. Angela always said that trust was the basis for every relationship. But does he want to enter a relationship with Stacker? Because Herc knows Stacker well enough to be aware that this isn't about fucking around to blow off some steam. This wave of feelings Herc got from him through the drift told him unmistakably that this is the real thing for Stacker. 

Okay, he really has to think this through. With a deep sigh Herc lies back down and stares at the ceiling, his thoughts running rampage. He suddenly remembers that weird conversation he had with Tam on a drunken night out in town. About how she is not and has never been an item with Stacker, and that he didn't need to worry about that. That he should go for it, that he had her blessing.

Oh heck, she knows. Okay, that's a stupid statement, of course she knows. She and Stacker are family, and as if that wasn't enough, she drifts with him. Out of the blue all those hints she gave him during that conversation make sense. She'd been playing matchmaker and he hadn't even noticed it. Herc realises suddenly that she never stopped playing matchmaker, it's just that she's incredibly subtle about it. 

Now that he thinks about it, there are many opportunities he can come up with where Tam played a vital role in bringing him and Stacker closer together. After all, she was the one to get them to try-out in the kwoon. She probably guessed beforehand that they were drift compatible, but she knew it would never go anywhere as long as it wasn't official. It was her as well who - seemingly in passing - mentioned to Caitlin that she should test her Jaeger tech developments with Stacker and Herc as pilots, since Tamsin was engaged in training the recruits that afternoon. Which had resulted in the regular testing they were doing for Caitlin now.

Okay, so Herc admits that he likes it a lot to drift with Stacker. It's as if he's finally complete again when they're engaged in the neural handshake, and that hole that Angela left behind when she died has finally closed. It makes him feel whole and at peace, and he knows from the drift that Stacker shares that feeling. 

He wouldn't miss drifting with Stacks for the world. He wouldn't miss spending time with Stacks for anything, period. 

Herc is still confused, but now there are so many new layers to this issue that he can't stop thinking about it. The only thing that is clear and undisputed in his mind is that Stacker Pentecost is in love with him.

And in the course of the sleepless night, Herc realises that it might just be mutual.


End file.
